Co-exposure to Aluminium and Cadmium Mediates Postpartum Maternal Variation in Brain Architecture and Behaviour of Mice; Involvement of Oxido-nitrergic and Cholinergic Mechanisms : Postpartum effects of Aluminium and Cadmium co-exposure in pregnancy.

Most research has not been done on the possible relationship between pregnant women's cross-metal exposures and postpartum neuroendocrine functions. The purpose of this study was to look into how co-exposure to aluminium chloride (AlCl₃) and cadmium chloride (CdCl₂) affected the neuroendocrine and neurometabolic changes in postpartum mice. A total of 24 adult pregnant female mice were used for the study. Group 1 served as control and received neither AlCl₃ nor CdCl₂ (n=6), group 2 comprised pregnant mice treated with AlCl₃ (10mg/kg), group 3 with CdCl₂ (1.5mg/kg), group 4 with a combination of AlCl₃ (10 mg/kg) and CdCl₂ (1.5 mg/kg).Oral treatment of animals was done daily from gestation day 7 to gestation day 20. Upon delivery and weaning on postnatal day 21 (PND 21), behavioural assessment was done on the postpartum mice and immediately followed by sacrifice for assessment of histological and neuroendocrine markers. Our findings revealed that the brain-to-body weight ratio was affected and brain oxidative stress was elevated in mice exposed to AlCl₃ and CdCl₂ during pregnancy. Given the strong association between postpartum hyperactivity, social interaction index, brain catalase and acetylcholinesterase activity, and the brain/body weight ratio, it is plausible that these effects have played a role in the adverse behavioural abnormalities observed in the postpartum maternal mice. Moreover, it was noted that in certain situations, co-exposures to the metals tended to have opposite effects to single metal exposures.